Thinking...

Thinking is something that I have always done in massive amounts through my life. Though it sounds like a great thing, it not always is. It tends to keep me up at night, make me worry a lot, and affect those around me to tell me “don’t worry” in almost all situations. It came to a point where I felt like I couldn’t be without this constant worry, I figured, I needed to find a way to relax. Over the last few weeks I have been re-reading some of my Buddhist class books and have found something that really helped me. Buddhism seems to be a lot about paying attention...

3 Page Paper “Dukkha”...

Dukkha and the ending of dukkha is something that from the beginning of class has been a topic of great importance. As I have experienced the class, I have gone from not understanding what dukkha is, to knowing a relative definition in the Buddhist prospective and applying it to the experience of life. Still though, our intentions in life according to the Buddhist practice should not only be to establish an understanding of what dukkha is in definition terms, but to apply the lessons in which to end dukkha. What is the definition of dukkha? According to the website...

A Good Comic...

A few days ago a friend of mine sent me a good comic that had some great insight into life. Here is the image: I think this image really tells us about something about the idea of life and things. Putting things to good use is very important. I never really understood why people think its important to preserve their items through history, like wealth. I mean look at the Egyptians and how much they obsessed over bringing their things with them after they died. I think its important to help others with what you have and to be productive. ...

ICA Discussion...

So after I posted my post about ICA, a friend of mine gave me a nice e-mail reply with what he had to think about my post. Here is my post: Today in class we had a nice little discussion about Interdependent Co-Arising and how engaged Buddhism works with this. When looking at ICA and knowing it to be true, you can see that every action, every reaction, every “good” and “bad” thing is caused by everyone. Everyone can be held accountable for every other persons actions. How crazy does that sound? Well its true. I was thinking about war. Well being in the military it...

ICA at its best...

Today in class we had a nice little discussion about Interdependent Co-Arising and how engaged Buddhism works with this. When looking at ICA and knowing it to be true, you can see that every action, every reaction, every “good” and “bad” thing is caused by everyone. Everyone can be held accountable for every other persons actions. How crazy does that sound? Well its true. I was thinking about war. Well being in the military it kind of comes with the territory, but doesn’t mean I agree with it. Ok so what causes this bad war stuff to happen?...

Sweet and Bitter...

The polarities we describe things by seem to rule our lives. We go as far as to apply all our feelings to be described by the opposite side of that emotion. Sadness is described by happiness, and soft is described by hard. When we look at all these feelings and emotions, they are never the same. There are different degrees of happiness and every person that feels happy is different than another. So how do we describe this and why? I think that relationships with words are important in communicating with people. The polarities describe things we like, dislike and things...

Walking No Place...

This last few weeks have been interesting ones for sure. They have been well, great! But in reflection of that great time, god what have I learned about myself. Thanksgiving is a time where for many people you get to go home and spend time with family. For me this is true too, something that I miss while going to college and all. I like to be home with my family, seeing my sisters, my mom, and all the attachments to those people. Its really a wonderful time. It also comes with a lot of free time, time to think, and by think I mean really really think. Something I have been...

Pride...

Today I had a good friend of mine give me a quote that he was inspired to think about while on a walk home. I thought it was fitting because it deals with some types of polarities… those blasted things that we grade the world by. Pride may come before the fall, but rarely does someone without pride reach heights from which they may fall. – Aaron Wilson I think that he really does reach the understanding of the polarity of pride. There is pride in which we describe how we are, what we believe in, and those things we are glad to be apart of. This pride we have...

Full Circle...

It is truly amazing how one instance in our lives can change from “good” to “bad” in a moment. So what determines this? Do we truly change the moment? Do we change the world? Perception is every thing. So you are having a bad day, ok that sucks. But why? Most people don’t ask this question, and if they do they don’t ask it to truly understand it. We look out at what affects our lives and what seems to make it a bad day, but we forget a big part of the picture, well maybe all the picture… ourselves. It is through our senses, our...

Tantra...

In the past I have not been one who really deals into the whole tantra idea, it just seemed rather strange to me, but after our class today I found it more interesting and maybe more down to earth then I thought before. As explained by our teacher, its real meaning behind it is that our bodies also have something to teach our minds about dukkha and the ending of dukkha… ahh yes, our brains are not the only smart ones. Recently I have been reading about what is considered by some to be the second brain. Though if we were thinking of a second brain we would probably...